In the first half of 1968, as a member of a team of Indian engineers and architects, I was undergoing advanced training in low-cost housing in the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Rotterdam has one of the biggest harbours in the world and is a major tourist attraction. There is the tall tower called Euromast which houses at its top the control room of the harbour. Around the tower is a beautiful park.
On a holiday forenoon, when I was taking a walk in the park, I noticed a young man of nearly my age coming in the opposite direction. His appearance suggested that he was from the Indian subcontinent. But as I was a little homesick and lost in thought, I did not pay much attention to him. We crossed each other and I walked along.
But after a few steps, I felt an irresistible urge to look back. When I did so, I found that the other man also had stopped and was looking back at me. Then he smiled and walked towards me. I also took a few steps to meet him halfway.
He smiled and asked me, “Are you from Pakistan?”
“No, I am from India,” I answered.
“Oh, that doesn’t matter, it is all the same thing,” he said. “Can you do me a favour?”
“Tell me,” I said.
“Please speak a few words to me in Urdu. I have been away from home for so long, and I long to hear some words in my mother tongue.”
“I don’t know Urdu, but I can manage the Hindustani spoken in Delhi. Will that do,” I asked.
“Of course. That is exactly what I want,” he replied.
And we carried on the further conversation in his fluent Urdu and my halting Hindustani. It turned out that he was a Pakistani working for a firm dealing with diamonds in Antwerp, Belgium. He was all praise for the culture of our subcontinent and the lilting melodies of Hindi film songs, all of which he missed in Europe. He thanked me profusely, and we shook hands and parted ways.
Ever since that incident, which was, chronologically speaking, midway between two India-Pakistan wars, I have wondered why it is that when individuals can get along as friends, nations made up of such individuals have to go to war. I have not got an answer yet.
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